Agencies

you have good topics to be writing a book about a sport like golf and having reader guessing until the very end of the book. The cliffhanger also made me read the next book. I may have understood better if I had read "Local Knowledge." Good Book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The CIA's Air America became famous for its feats in Southeast Asia. This is the story of how Air America began, as a private-venture airline in China headed by Claire Chennault of the Flying Tigers. Leary tells the story of how CAT morphed into a para-military force, supporting Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist troops in their losing battle with the Communists, and eventually retreating with them to Taiwan. There it began to take on odd jobs for the U.S. military, and eventually the CIA bought a piece of it, so that CAT pilots were one day flying supplies to U.S. forces in Korea, again providing the same service for French troops in Vietnam, and between times dropping spies into China. It's a great yarn, though told with professorial precision. A reprint (no changes) of an earlier book from a university press.

Although I am mainly a neurobiologist by training, I started out in the humanities and social sciences. I still have an interest in them, and occasionally tackle impressive sounding tomes like this in those fields. I didn't have much of an idea about personality issues like this in African cultures compared to Oceania, Asia, and Europe, and this book helped to fill in some of those gaps. Prior to this I'd read Elizabeth Marshall Thomas's study of the Kalahari Bushmen and Colin Turnbull's The Forest People, about the pgymies, so I had some previous background in a couple of African cultures.

As my specialty is perception and sensation, I can't resist making a comment about the Turnbull book that I found interesting. At one point Turnbull goes with a small group of pygmies to the edge of the forest, something they rarely do, since they are truly a forest people, and their enemies, the Blue Men, inhabit the more arid plains adjacent to the forest. They look out over the plain and see water buffalos in the distance. One of the pygmies remarks on how small they are. Turnbull realizes the pygmies, who never see animals at a distance of more than 50 feet or so in the dense forest, don't realize that the buffalos are hundreds of yards away, and so visually misjudge their actual size, since their normal environment doesn't provide them with the experience of learning size relationships at greater distances.

I've also read and studied somewhat on African art, which contributed importantly to artists such as Picasso and Cubism in his famous, Les Demoiselles D'Avignon. As such, African, especially western African art, shows similar characteristics of formal fragmentation and distortion for expressive effect. Tribes like the Senufo, for example, who live along the northern border of the Ivory Coast in western, sub-Saharan Africa, have separate castes for artisans and artists. Most of the tribe is involved with agriculture and raising livestock, but artists have high prestige similar to a wealthy farmer. There are three of these special castes, one which makes household furniture and intricate carved doors that are highly prized, another that makes wooden figurines mostly used for ceremonial purposes, and goldworkers who make fine ornaments and jewelry.

This book is more on the psychology and personality side, of course, than the aesthetic. This collection of papers by a number of researchers will give you a better background in the issues of identity and self with respect to both male and female roles in different African cultures. Although I'm not an expert in this area and can't say for sure, this is the only scholarly collection I've seen on this topic for Africa.

New managerialsm, quality loops and incompatibility

If you want to know more about these things in the context of studying for MEd/PhD/PgCE education - this book is a must read.

Each clearly written and professionally researched small chapter of investigation is an excellent source for reference to support planned investigations into policy making and shaping.

Government Executives must read this book to understand how to better manage and invest in technology. This very easy to read and non-technical book addresses issues facing government managers including: new procurement models, outsourcing , training and of course the rapid growth of internet use and on-line transactions. While based on the research done for February 1999 Governing article "Government Performance Project" the basic principles of standardization, strategic planning and naming a CIO are still valid for government organizations today. Katherine Barrett and Richard Greene do a good job of explaining why the old politics of siloed departments fails citizens today.

I consider this book to be very informative to program planning and evaluation. The authors included a complete and thorough explanation of system concepts, functions/techniques of planning, internal processes, outcome evaluation, cost benefit analysis and evaluation designs.

I haven't read any other materials dealing with public planning and evaluation but this book clearly pinpointed specific issues to help guide an individual with no prior knowledge.

The book wasn't difficult to read or understand. Chapters 1-7 were in sync from the beginning. Chapter 8 ends with a 10 point checklist for program evaluators. The book contained a wealth of information. However, there could have been more practice exercises and examples of program planning and evaluation. Also, the book could have been longer, it was very short but comprehensive.

Most material dealing with public finance or budgeting delivers more drudgery than useful information. Reed and Swain cut through buzz words and cliches--their writng provides detailed explanation without confusing the reader, offering a better understanding of how money moves in the public sector. I definitely recommend starting with this book before you go anywhere else.

Cindy Skrzycki's weekly column titled "The Regulators" has captured the attention of readers of the Washington Post for more than a decade, uncovering the power struggles, political intrigue, special interests and legal battles that go on behind the scenes in Washington. Now, her wit and humor help make the seemingly arcane topic of regulation accessible (and even fun) for readers of her new book, The Regulators: Anonymous Power Brokers in American Politics.

The book, punctuated by some of her most interesting and amusing columns over the years, will make interesting reading for anyone interested in American politics and regulation. Skrzycki's goal in writing the book was to "take a complicated and sometimes inscrutable topic and make it a comprehensible, important lesson in government," (XII), and she succeeds. The Regulators does not provide an academic treatment of the theories of regulation nor details of legal or economic principles. Rather, it addresses the more personal side of regulation: who are these anonymous power brokers determining the legal size of holes in Swiss cheese or the definition of a breath mint? By whom are they influenced and how ubiquitous is their influence in our daily lives?

Followers of her column will be pleased to see that, like her Post stories, each chapter is humorously illustrated by Keith Bendis.

This is a very interesting book on a very important subject in the efficience and effectiveness of government operation.

Aino Halinen's doctoral disseration from the Turku School of Economics, Finland, has now also been published by Routledge. The study is a pioneering piece of work on the development of buyer-seller relationships in professional services, mainly building on the theoretical work by the IMP group interaction/network studies. The study also interestingly reflects the recent "relational turn" in marketing research in general. The longitudinal case study described and analysed in the book also gives the reader a good example of how an interpretative research method can provide thorough theoretical insights and meaningful managerial implications. The book can be characterized as "obligatory" readings for any M.Sc. or doctoral student in marketing interested in interorganizational relationships and networks.